How important is shielding the pickup and control cavities?

[teegar]

I'm ordering up supplies for my first attempt at replacing and re-wiring the pickups, pots, switch and jack of the '66 Wilshire reissue. The cavities are at present not shielded with anything, just a strip of foil tape on the underside of the pickguard under the pots. I suppose if I want to "do it right" I'd need to line the cavities with some of that copper tape shielding, but is it really worth the effort? How important is it? This guitar won't be gigging in the presence of dozens of interfering electrical devices, just the standard home interference items.

 

Any thoughts much appreciated - and if you think it's important, any tips for making sure it's done right?

[snookelputz]

Are the cavities painted flat black? That is the color of most shielding paint.

[Guest]

Not knowledgeable enough to answer your questions G....

 

but good luck with the project and looking forward seeing and hopefully hearing the end result.....

 

It is always satisfying to see a good guitar made into a fine guitar...

 

EDIT: What' with the Marc Bolan avatar.....you got me hoping you will give us a rendition of "Ride a White Swan" on the Wilshire when it is finished.....:)

 

Cooper - my son (age 6) is migrating from his Beatles obsession to a T. Rex obsession. I admit to nudging in that direction. So it got me thinking about Bolan with his 60's Cortez' date=' pickup duct taped to the top...Cool[/quote']

 

A mate of mine in school around 1970 got into Tyrannosaurus Rex (try and find their real early stuff pre 1970) as they were known then and "Ride a White Swan" was my favourite track of theirs then when they became very popular I went off them......Tell your son to cehck out the very early stuff...

 

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k75v2Ek16Xw[/YOUTUBE]

[peeper]

I would say it is unnecessary for home use unless you are having serious interference issues. I generally only do it to stage and studio guitars.

 

But if you want to do it, use the copper foil tape, do the entire cavity, slightly overlapping layers for complete coverage, then connect this shield you made to ground. Depending on the foil used you may need to solder all the pieces together for continuity.

[tulsaslim]

I'm ordering up supplies for my first attempt at replacing and re-wiring the pickups' date=' pots, switch and jack of the '66 Wilshire reissue. The cavities are at present not shielded with anything, just a strip of foil tape on the underside of the pickguard under the pots. I suppose if I want to "do it right" I'd need to line the cavities with some of that copper tape shielding, but is it really worth the effort? How important is it? This guitar won't be gigging in the presence of dozens of interfering electrical devices, just the standard home interference items.

 

Any thoughts much appreciated - and if you think it's important, any tips for making sure it's done right?[/quote']

 

Just read a book about Fender guitars and it said Leo learned a great lesson from Nat Daniel at Danelectro that involved "nothing more than a half-cent worth of aluminum foil" as a shield for the pickup cavity.

[SamBooka]

I have posted this in a few places and no one has been even tried to shoot me down.

When you touch your strings or any grounded metal part does the hum level go down?

If yes then shielding will help. It will get rid of the hum from when you are NOT touching your strings.

If touching your strings has no effect on the hum level then you are fine. There is no advantage to overshielding.

[peeper]

Actually shielding won't help with ground hum, it does however decrease EMI interference.

[marvar]

Actually shielding won't help with ground hum' date=' it does however decrease EMI interference. [/quote']

Yep!

and for any shieding to be effective, it too, must be grounded!

I've had all kinds of guitars over the years, and IMO it really doesn't make that much difference. And, I've never really had any problems, with the exception of my P90 guitars, but usually that has been caused by a bad dimmer with the lights, or, just a bad building ground, or getting too close to the amp.

What does make a difference is the wiring, solder joints, and good solid grounding, and good cables.

[teegar]

Thanks for the advice folks, it does indeed hum sitting idle, and then palm muting the strings reduces, almost eliminates, the hum. The ground is inadequate, removing the bridge posts you can see the wire down at the bottom, but it does not appear to make contact with the bushing, so I suspect bad ground. Unlike Johnnyg's Wilshire, the soldering is not too bad. But it still needs the full upgrade to turn it into a winner. Perhaps I'll try it upgraded without shielding everything in sight, and if there's a problem, go back and shield.

 

Would it be important that nothing potentially hot - pot leads, wire, etc. - ever come into contact with that shielding?

 

Cooper - my son (age 6) is migrating from his Beatles obsession to a T. Rex obsession. I admit to nudging in that direction. So it got me thinking about Bolan with his 60's Cortez, pickup duct taped to the top...

[peeper]

[quote name=teegar

Would it be important that nothing potentially hot - pot leads' date=' wire, etc. - ever come into contact with that shielding?

 

[/quote]

 

 

yes